Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Coming out of Jacksonville Landing on the St Johns River put us right back into the commercial river way and the land of barges and industrial traffic. I hadn't seen this since the river system last year

Back in the barge traffic

We snuck off the St Johns River at Sisters Creek and enjoyed a quiet night on a free dock. We caught up with and shared dock tales with the S/V Cat Manana that was at El Milagro Marina in Isla Mujeres, and crossed with the mass exodus the same time we did. It was an interesting evening listening to the knowledge of the couple that had been cruising for 20 years along with the excitement of a young couple that just bought their first sailboat and were learning the ins and outs, dos and don’ts, engine failure and heart palpitations that we all experience.

Sisters Creek

Pine Island East

The next day we headed for pine island east an anchorage that would put us in a good distance from St Augustine where we had reservations on a mooring ball for New Years Eve. It turned into a dull, dank, wet day on the ICW, but we spotted our first dolphins of the season and dolphins can always cheer me up. That night on the hook at Pine Island East the weather stayed nasty and wasn't supposed to change until the 1st Jan so we decided not to waste a day at a mooring in bad weather and headed off to Fort Matanzas for a quiet New Years just the two of us

Monday, December 29, 2014

Jacksonville City Landing was a wonderful long over due stop, we enjoyed a beautiful Christmas tree, live music and a cold margarita. How soon we forgot the scrubbing and scrapping. The sunset was stunning and people watching perfect

Sunday, December 28, 2014

After a fantastic sleep on the hook, I jumped out of bed at 06:30 to take a morning sunrise (07:33) picture, but the fog has rolled in and though I can see the sun trying to pop thru it seems to be getting thicker and thicker. The fog finally lifted and we could pull anchor at 11:37. Off to the free city docks in Jacksonville City.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Yesterday was a pretty great day for us, as we moved away from the Green Cove Springs Marina wall. Oh, so we only went six.eight miles, but sunshine and excitement was the trend for the day. One of the first questions boaters in a boat yard ask is “where are you going,” and the second question is always “when are you leaving?” Our 42 days on the hard made for repetitive responses, so we started coming up with, or copying inventive answers such as, we are right where we belong today, or we will leave on the first or the second, the first chance I get, or the second the boat is ready...today we got to say, today :)

As with spending time in any boat yard we were happy to renew relationships with friends made last year on the loop and Cuba and make new friends that we hope to catch up again with. We are learning that the world is big, but the sailing community is small, everybody knows everybody or someone who knows someone you know.

So now as I sit in the first anchorage of the season with the chaos of prep and repair over, enjoying the sunset I feel like this years boating season has finally started.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

1984 was a good year, the first Apple Mac went on sale, Sonny released its first commercial CD players, Ghost Busters was in the theatre, Phil Collins was on the radio and in 84 DevOcean was built in France.

I tried to research some history on DevOcean and the Beneteau for this blog and really all I fell upon were beautiful yachts, with beautiful, people dressed in white, sipping champagne or leisurely doing yoga on the spacious fore deck. Trust me I haven't worn white for the past month, I will save the champagne for new years and if crumpling yourself in semi erotic poses to twist a screw in an impossible space is yoga then I am solid on that front.

We are doing what seems to be the yearly converging of the cruising community in working yards, living on the hard. Boaters gather to sand, wax, paint, repair, renew, rebuild, remodel their boats to keep them safe and seaworthy. It aint sexy, it aint pretty, and it aint fun, Its necessary.

In my limited experience, boat yards are dirty places, with many tired people scrambling for parts on questionable internet, sleeping in the same space they work in from sun up to sun down all trying to get there boats back in the water so they can go sailing.

In my summer fantasy of returning to DevOcean I thought I would return to her gleaming in the boat yard, do a little “pretty," socialise and leave. Reality bit my butt.

Due to the cracked port lights she was damper than expected. We easily and quickly dried her out with ventilation (quite simply, open hatches). We took all of the cushions out and left them in the sun to dry out thoroughly, washed all of the covers etc. Bleach, vinegar, vinegar bleach, It didn't take long to completely dry her out. Our major problem was the unexpected cracked port lights, replacing them and finding Chicago screws. Ok, not finding the screws but getting the screws. I could write a whole other blog on that and the bad service from www.chicagoscrews.com but that just wouldn’t be nice. Suffice it to say we still have not received an order placed almost a month ago. Thus one of the main reason for still sitting.

Side One Of Two

So we turned to replacing the famous Beneteau sagging head liner in the bow berth and salon with a crisp clean white pcv board. In my head easy peasy right? Why don’t I listen to my inner Marc? After much scrubbing, scrapping and sanding the bow berth is beginning to look beautiful, the salon brighter. My new and most fantastic gift Marc gave me was two new port holes, one above the stove and one parallel on the starboard wall for cross ventilation. Love my new port holes.

My View Last Night From My New Port Hole Cooking Dinner

So where are we at? Marc is finicky with the engine and it is being finickity back at him. I have resorted to provisioning and staying out of his way. If we don’t launch by friday which we must do with a working engine we will not be able to launch until the New Year. Being in Jacksonville is no hardship but we would much prefer being in the water. As always boating people are, gracious, helpful, so as much as being on the hard is hard, life is good.

Old Saggy

Pictures To Follow If I Ever Get To The Pretty Part

Many chores have come from normal wear and tear sadly some from the abuse of others While at dinner on a mooring ball in Key West last year we were hit and the anchor rollers ripped almost completely off. So Marc replaced them from the sailors exchange in St Agustin. I wonder what the other boat looked like?